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"No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body." --Margaret Sanger
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"In my heart, I think a woman has two choices: either she's a feminist or a masochist." --Gloria Steinem
Aug
17
I Met The Walrus
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, fun, pop culture, videos | 3 Comments
Well, not me. I wish. This is a 1969 interview with John Lennon, conducted by a 14-year-old boy, which has been animated. Really, it’s great — John was always and excellent interview, and the illustrations are funny and inspired.
Thanks to Pop Feminist for sending it my way.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Jul
5
For the Yoko Fans
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, blogging, feminism, fun | 9 Comments
Because so many of you have commented before that you are also fans of Yoko Ono, I thought I’d share my discovery from yesterday. Yoko has started a blog called 100 Acorns, which will contain conceptual “instructions,” similar to those found in her wonderful book Grapefruit, for 100 days. They’re great.
From the site:
It’s been 44 years since my book of conceptual instructions, GRAPEFRUIT was first published in 1964.
On 15 June 1968, John Lennon & I planted two acorns for peace at Coventry Cathedral. It was the first of our many Peace ‘Events’.
In the summer of 1996, I picked up from where I left off, and wrote 100 ACORNS.
Starting on the 40th anniversary of the Acorn Peace Event on 15 June 2008, I will publish here an acorn every day for 100 days.
After each day of sharing the instructions, you should feel free to question, discuss, and/or report what your mind tells you.
I’m just planting the seeds.
Have fun.
Love, yoko
June 2008
Even better, the “acorns” are accompanied by her own drawings. And as always, Yoko is an insightful and funny woman. I remember getting a third to halfway through Grapefruit for the first time before I actually started to “get” it, and John once said that the book made him really angry and frustrated the first time around. So those who are unfamiliar with Yoko’s “instructions” may experience something similar. This is one of my favorite acorns so far. Check it out.
In other Yoko news, I’ve always wanted to see a Yoko Ono art show. Lewisburg is a 4 hour drive from where I live, so my husband and I are making tentative plans to take an overnight trip and go to this show in a couple of months. I mean, a version of Play it by Trust is going to be there! (Play it by Trust the all white chest set, a piece I have always admired and whose title I have always adored. The original chess pieces were all sent to world leaders.)
Oh, and I’m working on a series of posts about the Evil Yoko caricature from a feminist standpoint. It’s fun, so far, and I’m looking forward to completing it.
Popularity: 16% [?]
Jun
28
Seven Summer Songs
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, fun, media, pop culture, videos | 4 Comments
I found this via Iylka:
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.
Now, she didn’t tag me, but it looked like a lot of fun, so I decided to do it anyway. After all, I did just go ahead and bite the bullet and make a Gratuitous Beatles Blogging category. Might as well use it, don’t you think? Some people have their cat, or dog, or otter blogging. I can have my occasional Saturday Beatles blogging, right? (No, seriously, I’m not pissing anyone off, am I?)
And yes, they are all Beatles songs. I go through obsessive periods, and my obsessive Beatles periods tend to last longest. I haven’t listened to anything but the Beatles for months now. No, that’s not an exaggeration. But I’m having a great time with it, and showing no signs of slowing down! As you can see, I’m in an early Beatles mood lately, which is really unlike me. But, finally watching the Beatles Anthology for the first time this Christmas, particularly the live performances, gave me a new appreciation for their early work. Also, if these aren’t “summer” songs, I don’t know what are.
I Should Have Known Better. One of John’s best early songs, IMHO. Video from A Hard Day’s Night, one of my favorite movies. Watch John rock out the harmonica and Paul make some flirty eyes with George’s future wife Pattie Boyd.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Jun
21
I’d Love to Turn You On
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, fun, pop culture, random, videos | 14 Comments
Dude. So, Paul McCartney performed A Day in the Life live.
Whoa.
Popularity: 18% [?]
May
30
Ron Paul: The Candidacy That Won’t Die
Filed Under 2008 election, Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, Republicans, abortion, assholes, bigotry, politics, pop culture, race and racism, videos | 33 Comments
I’ve written on more than one occasion about how I hate Ron Paul’s eccentric, misogynist, racist, xenophobic guts and never, ever want to hear his name again. But unfortunately, I’m still passing a giant Ron Paul sign every day on the way to work. And the New York Times is still writing about him. I just can’t contain my fury. (all emphasis in quoted text mine)
Attendance at Ron Paul campaign stops has nearly returned to pre-Super Tuesday levels. A group of supporters recently announced plans to start Paulville, a gated community in West Texas, where believers can pursue the candidate’s libertarian ideals as a cooperative lifestyle. Ron Paul’s book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto,” rocketed to No. 1 on a New York Times best-seller list on May 18 (it has since dropped). Supporters are starting to discuss creating yippie-ish disruptions at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September to gain visibility for the movement.
[. . .]
This message has hit home — not only with some traditional libertarians, but also among a small but passionate group of young voters who came of age after Sept. 11, during the debates about the Iraq war, the Patriot Act and Abu Ghraib. For them, the Ron Paul message has the feel not of 1776, but of 1968, when an unpopular war raged abroad, and a subculture of disenfranchised young people embraced an unorthodox philosophy built around a utopian ideal of freedom.
Of course, Ron Paul is a lot closer to Barry Goldwater than to Eugene McCarthy. But his young supporters, many of whom call themselves former liberals, said the peacenik left shares much with the libertarian right.
“It’s about taking the country back,” Mr. Lim said, waving off the policy differences between his old “political saint,” Mr. Nader, and his new one, who is anti-Roe (Mr. Paul opposes abortion personally, but thinks states should decide the issue) and supports gun rights. “Whether you believe in abortion or not, in guns or not, that’s not the point,” Mr. Lim said. “It’s about the way the country is going: to hell in a handbasket.”
Yeah, the country is going to hell in a handbasket, so let’s give everybody a bunch of guns and let the government decide that women should be forced to give birth! Because our society and government are so fucked up and can’t be trusted. That makes sense.
No, seriously, have people just gone ridiculously, unforgivably stupid? Yes — yes, they have. Read on.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Apr
27
Oh No They Didn’t
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, education and schools, fun, media, pop culture, random, religious fanaticism | 10 Comments
You know that stupid Ben Stein movie Expelled, that argues in favor of “intelligent design” and chastises the sane for not allowing religious bullshit to be taught in science classes? Apparently, they used the John Lennon song Imagine in the film . . . without permission.
Yoko Ono, one of my all-time favorite feminists, isn’t having any of that shit. The issue came to her attention when bloggers started accusing her of selling out. And so she slapped the filmmakers with a lawsuit.
Popularity: 25% [?]
Apr
1
Neil Aspinall Died
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, media, pop culture, random | Leave a Comment
Now interrupting your regularly scheduled feminism . . .
I don’t know how I missed it, but I did. It seemingly didn’t get a lot of press in the U.S. I just came across an obituary today, a week later. Neil Aspinall died of lung cancer. And it makes me very sad.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Dec
8
Like the Moon, and the Stars, and the Sun
Filed Under Gratuitous Beatles Blogging, feminism, pop culture | 10 Comments
27 years ago today, John Lennon was murdered. He was only 40 years old.
I am, in fact, a huge fan of John’s. We never existed on this earth together — I was born 4 years too late, and some asshole took him out several decades too soon — but he has influenced my life in a multitude of ways. I consider him to be inspiring, even in his wrongness and naivety, brilliant on every level and most likely the greatest songwriter to ever live.
I’ve chosen a photograph with Yoko Ono because I think that’s what he would have wanted. The treatment and public understanding of Yoko and why it’s a feminist issue is a whole other post. I would have used a photograph with Sean as well, if I had found an equally good one, because that’s what John felt his life was: Yoko, Sean and music. I think that Yoko also serves as an important reminder that John was many things. When he was young, two of those things were a misogynist and an asshole. In his later years, one of them was a feminist. Lennon has always been to me a form of proof that people can change for the better. In particular, it’s not impossible for sexist men to become some of our best allies.
To both fellow-fans and those who know little but want to learn more, I could not more highly recommend the final major interview with John and Yoko: All We Are Saying. If you haven’t read it, you should. It’s one of my favorite books.
To other Lennon fans out there, two topics for discussion, both of which John probably wouldn’t have approved, but hey, he was a crank about this sort of thing:
1. Favorite John songs. Mine include Revolution, Day in the Life, Happiness is a Warm Gun, I Want You (She’s So Heavy), Instant Karma, Imagine (duh), and his version of Stand By Me, which knocks the wind out of me and brings a tear to my eye.
2. Tell any of your Lennon experiences. How he or his music influenced you, cool Lennon-related things that you’ve seen/done, etc. And maybe I’ll share some of my own in the comments.
And to make John (and Yoko) happy, here’s an exercise of which they would approve, to be done either in the comments or just in private on your own time: think about the change you want to see in the world and how we can get there.
Popularity: 10% [?]
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." —Margaret Mead
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"Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less." -- Susan B. Anthony
